1141. To season and render Green Timber immediately fit for use.—After the timber has been cut down from the stock, take off, immediately, both the outer bark and also the inner rind, clean to the wood; cut it up to the different purposes for which it may be wanted, whether scantlings for roofings, joists, planks, deals, or the like. After preparing them for their proper use, steep them in lime-water a few days, or pay them over with a little of the lime, along with the water. The hotter it is used after the lime is slaked, so much the better. Lime-water is made by slaking the lime-shells in water. This will answer equally well for round trees. The author of this method says, he has been, for a great number of years past, used to take down and repair both ancient and modern buildings, in which a good deal of Scots fir had been used, but he never found one inch either rotten or worm-eaten, where it was in the least connected with lime, and kept dry; on the contrary, he found it more hard and firm than when first used.
BUILDING.
1142. Artificial Stone Floors and Coverings for Houses, as made in some parts of Russia.—The floors and coverings of houses, in some parts of South Russia, are made in the following manner:—For a floor, let the ground be made even, and some stones of any shape be put on, and, with a heavy wooden rammer, force or beat the stones into the ground, continuing to beat the floor till it become quite even, and incapable of receiving any farther impression. Then run lime, immediately after it has been slaked, through a fine sieve, as expeditiously as possible, because exposure to the air weakens the lime. Mix two parts of coarse sand, or washed gravel, (for there must be no earth in it,) with one part of lime-powder, and wet them with bullocks' blood; so little moist, however, as merely to prevent the lime from blowing away in powder; in short, the less moist, the better. Spread it on the floor, and, without a moment's loss of time, let several men be ready, with large beetles, to beat the mixture, which will become more and more moist by the excessive beating requisite. Then put on it some of the dry sand and lime, mixed, and beat it till like a stone. If required to be very fine, take for the next layer finely-sifted lime, with about a tenth part of rye-flour, and a little ox-blood; beat it till it becomes a very stiff mortar, and then smooth it with a trowel. The next day, again smooth it with a trowel; and so continue to do, daily, till it be entirely dry. When it is quite dry and hard, rub it over with fresh ox-blood, taking off all which it will not imbibe. No wet will penetrate this composition, which, however, after some time, is often painted with oil-colors. The whole floor appears as a single stone, and nothing will affect it. The drier it is used, the better, provided that, with much beating, it becomes like a very stiff mortar, and evidently forms a compact body. On flat tops of houses, the beetle, or rammers' ends, must be smaller, to prevent the rebounding of the boards and timber, which would crack the cement; but, when the thickness of a foot is laid on, it will beat more firmly. A thin coating of ox-blood, flour, and lime, being beat in large, strong, wooden troughs, or mortar, till it can be spread with a trowel, may be used without beating it again on the floor or house-top; but it must be very stiff, and used most expeditiously. Even frost will not affect it. With this composition, artificial stone may be made, rammed very hard into strong wooden frames of the required shape; particularly to turn arches for buildings of rammed earth. It is well known, that earth which is not too argillaceous, with only the moisture it has when fresh dug, on being rammed between frames of wood, till the rammer will no longer impress it, makes external walls; but a mass as hard as stone may be made with a little lime added to sand, horse-dung, and ox-blood. The more the lime is beaten, the moister it becomes; and it must contain so much moisture as to become, by beating, a solid mass, adhering in all its parts, and not remain crumbling, that will properly set as mortar. If there be too little moisture at first, it will remain a powder; if there be too much, it will become a soft mortar. Lime is of no use, mixed with clay or vegetable earths; which, if well beaten, are stronger without it.
1143. To cure Damp Walls.—Boil two quarts of tar, with two ounces of kitchen-grease, for a quarter of an hour, in an iron pot. Add some of this tar to a mixture of slaked lime and powdered glass, which have passed through a flour-sieve, and been completely dried over the fire in an iron pot, in the proportion of two parts of lime and one of glass, till the mixture becomes of the consistence of thin plaster. The cement must be used immediately after being mixed, and therefore it is proper not to mix more of it than will coat one square foot of wall, since it quickly becomes too hard for use; and care must be taken to prevent any moisture from mixing with the cement. For a wall merely damp, a coating one-eighth of an inch thick is sufficient; but if the wall is wet, there must be a second coat. Plaster made of lime, hair, and plaster of Paris, may afterwards be laid on as a cement. The cement above described will unite the parts of Portland stone or marble, so as to make them as durable as they were prior to the fracture.
1144. To increase the Durability of Tiles for covering Buildings.—The following composition has been found to be of extraordinary durability, as a glazing or varnish for tiles. No sort of weather, even for a considerable length of time, has had any effect upon it. It prevents that absorption of water, by which common tiles are rendered liable to crumble into dust, hinders the shivering of tiles, and gives to red bricks a soft lustre, by which their appearance is much improved.
Over a weak fire heat a bottle of linseed oil, with an ounce of litharge, and a small portion of minium, till such time as a feather, used in stirring it, shall be burnt to the degree of being easily rubbed to powder between the fingers. Then take off the varnish, let it cool, clarify it from any impurities which may have fallen to the bottom, and heat it again. Having, in the mean time, melted from three to four ounces of pitch, mix this with the warm varnish. The specific gravity of the pitch hinders it from mingling thoroughly with the varnish, though it even remain so long upon the fire as to be evaporated to considerable thickness. It is not till the varnish be cooled, nearly to the consistency of common syrup, that this effect takes place in the requisite degree. If it be too thick, let hot varnish be added, to bring it to the proper consistency; if it be too thin, add melted pitch. Next, put in as much brick-dust as the mixture can receive, without being made too thick for convenient use. The finer the brick-dust, and the easier it is to be moved with the point of a pencil, so much the fitter will it be to fill up the chinks and unevenness of the bricks, and, as it were, to incorporate itself with their substance. Prepare the brick-dust in the following manner:—Take a certain number of pieces of good brick, beat them into dust, and sift the dust in a hair-sieve. Then, to improve its fineness, rub it on a stone with water, dry it, and mix it with the varnish in the necessary proportion. If the brick-dust be naturally of too dark a color, a portion of some that is brighter may be added, to make the color clear.
It is to be laid on the tiles in the same manner in which oil-colors in general are put upon the substances on which they are applied. The composition must be heated from time to time, when it is to be used.